One Week In

It's been one week since we started attacking our business problem - that sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are fundamentally flawed, and that people don't always know what they want to do. Our idea is to build a site that has activities on a map that will show people what events are going on around town. Our initial goal is to build a pretty generic site and get feedback from users on how they would actually use it. Then iterate and improve as quick as possible.

Technical Overview by Mike
I'm using a couple of open source and free resources to rapidly develop this site. I'll outline some of the things below - they're great resources for anyone trying to build a website quickly.

• Ruby on Rails - an awesome open-source framework. It takes some time to learn, but it's convention over configuration mindset makes it easy to get up an running.
• Devise - an authentication system that makes it easy to have users who can log in and out. Using this has already saved a ton of time.
• Bootstrap -  a CSS framework released by Twitter that helps website look nice without having to write thousands of lines of code. It's a good style base to start with.
• Google Maps API - used to plot out events for people to go to. It's free, but has a usage limit. If the site gets too popular then we'll have to pay Google money.
• Heroku - will host the site. Again, it's free, but can only handle a certain traffic load - after which you have to pay.

Developing the site

Using these free resources is really kickstarting the development of the site. Now I'll hand it off to Hunter and Bertand to talk about our progress on the business side of things.

Business Overview by Hunter and Bertrand

The first question that came to mind was, "What is the best way to get our idea out there for people to see?"  Duh….. Facebook.  So I decided I would post the question, What incentives draw or would draw you/other people to a website on a day to day basis? Also, what do you like/dislike about people’s websites that we can either make sure to have or make sure to leave off out website?  I asked this as a way to get a feel for how people honestly feel about websites and what catches their eye.  (more eyeballs=more money)

The results were beyond my expectation and shown light on what draws people and what people really want on a website.  The incentives were as follows; Money, t-shirt giveaways, home cooked meals, free movie tickets, free pizza giveaway, and possibly coupons.  These ideas gave insight on how to really get our website viewed.  People naturally love the word FREE!!!!  If we get people to view our website at the expense of a few free giveaways, these small expenses could prove beneficial.

As far as website likes/dislikes there were mixed viewpoints.  The answers given in likes/dislikes are as follows; unique with appeal so that it is beneficial to people beyond Jmaddy.com, not hard to read and too flashy, funny youtube videos to draw attention, emphasis on core business ideas, no music, and anything that involves saving money. 

People not only love FREE, they love FUN activities that don’t completely empty the bank account.  Our goal is to create a website that brings value to JMU students, Harrisonburg residents, and anyone around the area. So we started to build a database of activities for our website including:

 - Potential bars and restaurant that would be interested in our services

 - Concerts and special events

 - Sport events scheduled: men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's tennis, Lacrosse

 - House parties

We'll be adding these things ourselves once the site is up. Through incentives provided and website ideas, we hope to begin our business with a way to DRAW people in.  Therefore, open your EYES and check us out soon…….